The present invention relates to an aerodynamic underfloor panel lowerable towards a roadway and intended primarily for the front end of motor vehicles.
An underfloor panel of this general type is known from German Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 3,132,314. In that reference, the front skirt of a motor vehicle is pivoted towards the roadway, in order to obtain lower flow resistances along the vehicle bottom at higher speeds. However, as a result of an opening into the engine space occurring at the front when the front skirt is lowered, a design of this type must allow for additional unfavorable cooling-air influences to be controlled and for air vortices having an increasing effect on the drag coefficient which arise in the engine space under various driving conditions.
An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide an underfloor panel lowerable towards the roadway and intended for the front end of motor vehicles such that the flow conditions in the engine space remain the same when the underfloor panel is in different lowering positions.
Because the underfloor panel is elastically deformed, while at the same time the transition to the front body parts, which is closed over the entire surface, is maintained, the position of the underfloor panel can be matched to the prevailing driving conditions without the occurrence of additional undesirable airflow influences which would have to be compensated again by means of new control operations.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.